Beer-Drinking Muslim Woman's Caning to Go Ahead

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, (AP) – A Muslim woman sentenced to caning for drinking beer wants to get the punishment over with now that it has been confirmed by an Islamic appeals court judge, her father said Tuesday.

If the punishment is carried out, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old mother of two, would become the first Muslim woman to be caned in Malaysia, where about 60 percent of the 28 million people are Muslims.

The case has ignited a debate in this moderate Muslim-majority country whether conservative Islamists, who advocate harsh punishments, are gaining influence over the justice system and whether Islamic laws should intrude into people's private lives.

According to local media reports Monday, chief Judge Abdul Hamid Abdul Rahman of Pahang state's Shariah courts decided to uphold the sentence passed by the state high court on Kartika after a one-month review of the case. No date was immediately set for the caning.

Kartika's father, Shukarno Abdul Muttlib, 60, told The Associated Press that while the family had yet to be informed of the judge's latest decision, his daughter "accepts the punishment" and would like it to be carried out sooner rather than later.

"We obey the law," he said, adding that "it's a challenge ... (but) it's the way of my life."

Pahang court and religious department officials declined to talk about the case Tuesday. Others could not immediately be reached.

Kartika, a former model and nurse, was sentenced in July to six strokes of the cane and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400) for drinking beer in December 2007 at a beach resort in violation of Islamic laws. Islam prohibits Muslims from drinking alcohol.

Kartika, who pleaded guilty, refused to appeal her sentence and was on the verge of being caned on Aug. 24. But the punishment was halted at the last minute following an uproar in the media and among rights activists.

Instead, the government asked the Shariah High Court Appeals Panel in Kuantan, the capital of Pahang, to review the verdict. Judge Abdul Hamid, who headed the panel, ruled that the sentence was correct and should go forward.

The caning would be done with a thin stick on the back and would be largely symbolic rather than aimed at causing pain, unlike the caning of rapists and drug smugglers with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks that causes the skin to break and leave scars.

Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop said the prisons department has trained personnel who can carry out the caning in accordance with Islamic rules.

The date and time for the whipping will have to be decided by the court first, he said.

Malaysia follows a dual-track justice system. Shariah laws apply to Muslims in all personal matters. Non-Muslims — Chinese, Indians, Sikhs and other minorities — are covered by civil laws, and are free to drink.

Only three states in Malaysia — Pahang, Perlis and Kelantan — impose caning for drinking alcohol. In the other 10 states it is punishable by a fine.

Source: Asharq Alawsat

New Indonesia Law Punishes Adulterers and Homosexuals

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Adulterers can be stoned to death and homosexuality is punishable by steep prison terms under a new law passed unanimously by lawmakers in Indonesia's devoutly Muslim Aceh province Monday.

Aceh's regional parliament adopted the bill despite strong objections from human rights groups and the province's deputy governor, who said the legislation needed more careful consideration because it imposes a new form of capital punishment.

The chairman of the 69-seat house asked if the bill could be passed into law and members answered in unison: "Yes, it can." Some members of the moderate Democrat Party had voiced reservations, but none of them voted against the bill.

The law, which reinforces the province's already strict Islamic laws, is to go into effect within 30 days. Its passage comes two weeks before a new assembly led by the moderate Aceh Party will be sworn in following a heavy defeat of conservative Muslim parties in local elections.

Aceh, where Islam first arrived in Indonesia from Saudi Arabia centuries ago, enjoys semiautonomy from the central government.

A long-running Islamic insurgency in the province ended in 2005 in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 130,000 there.

A version of Islamic law, or Shariah, that had been introduced in Aceh in 2001 already bans gambling and drinking alcohol, and makes it compulsory for women to wear headscarves. Dozens of public canings have been carried out by the local Shariah police against violators of that law.

Read more here,,,,

Source: FoxNews

Model spurns PM's plea to appeal against caning

Kuala Lumpur | August 26

MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Najib Razak has urged a Muslim model who faces being caned for drinking beer to appeal against the sentence and not be so willing to accept her fate.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, won a reprieve when religious officials who took her into custody ahead of the caning abruptly released her on Monday and delayed the punishment until after the fasting month of Ramadan.

She was sentenced by a religious court last month to six strokes. If the punishment is carried out, she would be the first woman to face caning under Islamic law in Malaysia, a moderate Muslim-majority country.

The mother-of-two has stared down religious authorities by saying she is ready to be caned, refusing to appeal against her sentence, and challenging them to cane her in public.

In an apparent attempt to defuse a furore over the case, Mr Najib said yesterday that while he would not interfere with the sharia courts, which operate alongside the civil courts in Malaysia, there were still avenues for Ms Kartika to appeal.

''I believe the authorities concerned are sensitive on this matter and realise the implications of this case,'' he said.

''I feel the person concerned should appeal to the state authorities and not be so willing to accept the punishment.''

However, Ms Kartika rejected his advice and said that if the authorities did not want to go ahead with the punishment they should say so openly.

''I won't file any appeal,'' she said. ''Carry on and cane me; don't waste my time.''

Source: The Age

Malaysian woman spared caning

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno had earlier been
taken into custody to face her sentence

Religious officials in Malaysia have spared a Muslim mother of two from being caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel.

In a surprise announcement early on Monday an official from the state of Pahang's Islamic Affairs department said Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno had been freed on orders from "higher authorities".

"The warrant cannot be executed," Sharafuddin Zainal Ariffin, head of enforcement for the state of Pahang's Islamic Affairs Department, told reporters.

Kartika had earlier been taken into custody for transportation to a prison near Kuala Lumpur, where she had been expected to face six lashes with a rattan cane.

She had been convicted in July by a sharia court and would have been the first woman in Malaysia to have been caned.

Kartika, a former nurse and part-time model, had earlier told Al Jazeera that she had accepted the sentence and was prepared to be caned.

Malaysia, which has large Chinese and Indian communities, uses a dual-track legal system where sharia courts - those following Islamic law - can try Muslims for religious and moral offences.

Alcohol is widely available in the country but is theoretically forbidden for the majority Muslim Malay community, who make up just over half the population.

Muslims can be fined, jailed for up to three years or given six strokes of the cane for drinking alcohol, but prosecutions are extremely rare.

Source: Al Jazeera (English)

Malaysia caning case sparks debate

Kartika, centre, has remained
stoical about her punishment

The case of a Muslim woman in Malaysia who is to be caned for drinking alcohol has created a public storm in the multi-ethnic Southeast Asian nation.

If the punishment goes ahead as planned, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will become the first woman in Malaysia to be caned under Islamic law.

But critics say the caning will damage Malaysia's international standing as a progressive and moderate Islamic country.

Judge Datuk Ismail Yahya, one of Malaysia's chief sharia judges, added his voice to the debate on Sunday, cautioning that the punishment ran contrary to the law.

"Kartika can sue. This is because her detention, and subsequently the whipping, is illegal," he was quoted by Malaysia's New Straits Times as saying.

The 32-year-old mother of two was sentenced to six strokes by a court in Pahang state after pleading guilty to drinking alcohol at a hotel nightclub last year.

She was also fined the equivalent of $1,420, but not given a prison sentence.

"The only way for her to end up in jail is if she doesn't pay her fine. But from what I understand, she has paid it," Ismail was quoted as saying.

"So, this means that there is no way that the whipping sentence can be executed."

National debate

Islamic scholars have backed the sentence, and said it would be carried out with Kartika fully clothed and using a cane that is smaller and lighter than the heavy length of rattan used in criminal cases.

Human-rights group Amnesty International has urged Malaysia not to carry out the sentence and to abolish what it called a "cruel and degrading punishment".

Despite the domestic furore and the international concern, Kartika has expressed no intention of avoiding her punishment.

In an interview at her home in a small Malay village in Kuala Kangsar earlier in the month: "Sometimes I feel sad and stressed as I have tarnished my family's name. But now after spending time reading the Quran, I feel calm and am not afraid of being caned."

Speaking to Al Jazeera, she confided that she had accepted the punishment at least partly to avoid what could be the two-year legal process of an appeal.

The former hospital worker and part-time model is expected to turn herself over to authorities at a women's prison in Kajang, south of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, where the punishment will be carried out on Monday.

Malaysia, which has large Chinese and Indian communities, uses a dual-track legal system where sharia courts, those following Islamic law, can try Muslims for religious and moral offences.

Source: Al Jazeera (English)